The human face of elderly care?
Communication and interactions between nurses and patients with dementia of the Alzheimers type is often inadequate. It would be inappropriate to suggest that nursing staff make no effort to communicate with patients who have dementia, but the communication difficulties that confront them require that a conscious effort is made to invest extra energy to provide meaningful communication. A number of interactive approaches are used by staff, traditionally those of reality orientation, behaviour modification, reminiscence therapy, and more recently, music therapy, touch therapy and aromatherapy. This paper overviews one other therapy which specifically addresses the communication needs of patients who suffer from dementia of the Alzheimers type, validation therapy.
Miller
L
L
North Staffordshire College of Nursing and Midwifery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
D000368:Aged; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D004645:Empathy; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D018939:Holistic Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans